Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-13
ALLAN QUARTERNAIp
OR
A BROWNING CITY
CHAPTER xL-A BROWNING CITY.

y
and huge misty shapes moved over the sur
face Of the water like ghosts of long-for
gotten djwns. They were the vapors ris.
ing from their watery bed to greet the sun
Then the gray turned to primrose, and the
primrose grew to red. Next, glorious bars
Of light sprang up across the eastern sky
and through them the radiant messengers
of the dawn came speeding upon their ar
rowy way, scattering the gnostly vapors
and awaking the mountains with a kiss,
as they flew from range to range and long
titude to longitude. Another moment and
the golden gates were open and the sun
himself came forth as bridegroom from
his chamber, with pomp and glory and a
flashing as of ten million spears, and en-
braced the night and covered her with
brightness and If was day.
But as yet u | see nothing save the
beautiful blue ST. above; for over the wat
er was thick layer of mist, exactly as
though the whole surface had been covered
with pillows of cotton wool BY degrees
however, the sun sucked up the mists, and
then [ saw that we were afloat upon aglor-
ious sheet of blue water of which I could
not make out the Shore Some eight or
ten miles behind us, however, there
range of PERCEPTIONS hills that formed a
retaining wall, of the lake; and l have nc
doubt that it was through some entrance
in these hills that the subterranean river
found its way into the open water. Indeed,
| afterward ascertained this to be the fact;
and it will be some indication of the eX
traordinary strength and directness of the
current of the mysterious river, that the
o++ 1icton CT
swering to it. Presently, too, I, or rather
Umslopogaas, who woke up just then, dis
covered another Indication, and q very un
pleasant one it was. Perceiving some
whitish object upon the water Umslopo-
gaas called my attention to it, and with a
few strokes of the paddle brought the ca
noe to the spot; whereupon we discovered
that the object was the body of man
floating face downward. This was bad
enough; but imagine my horror when,
Umslopogaas having turned him on his
back with the paddle, we reco gnizcd in the
sunken features the lineaments of-whom
do you suppose? None other than our poor
servant who had been sucked down two
days before in the waters of the subter-
ranean river. 1t gave me quite turn.
thought that we had left him behind for
ever; and behold borne by the current, he
had made the awful journey with us, and
with us had reached the end His appear
ance also was very dreadful He had been
black man, now he was a liyid white; for
the boiling water had scalded off nearly
all his outer skin. Also he bore traces of
having touched the pillar of fire-one arm
being completely shriveled up and all his
hair being burned Off The features were,
as | have said, sunken, and yet they pre-
served upon them that awful look of de-
Spair that had seen upon his lying face
as the poor fellow was sucked down.
Really the sight quite unnerved me, weary
and shaken as felt with all that we had
gone through, and / was heartily glad
when suddenly, and without any warning.
the body began to sink just as though it
had had a mission, which having accom-
plished, it retired; the real reason, no doubt,
being that turning it on its back allowed a
free passage to the gas. Down it went in
to the transparent depths-fathom after
fathom we could trace its course, till at last
a long line of bright gair-bubbles, swiftly
chasing each other to the surface alone
remained where it had passed. At length
these, too, were gone, and that was an end
OF our poor servant. Umslopogaas thought
fully watched the body vanish.
"What did he follow us for?" he asked.
"'Tis an i'll omen for thee and me, Macum-
azahn." And he laughed.
turned on him angrily, for [ dislike
these unpleasant suggestions If people
have such IDEAS they. ought in common
decency to keep them to themselves. Ide-
test individuals who make one the subject
of their disagreeable presentiments, or
vl0 xxvl,a how Il
one hanged as a common felon, or some
such horror, will insist upon telling one all
about it at breakfast, even if they have to
get up early to do it.
just then, however, the others woke up
and began to rejoice exceedingly at find
ing that we were out of that dreadful river
and once more beneath the blue sky Then
followed babel of talk and suggestions
as to what we were to do next; the upshot
of all of which was, that, as we were ex-
cessively hungry, and had nothing what
soever left to eat except a few scraps Of
biltong dried game-fesh), having aban-
doned all that remained OF our provisions
ito those horrible fresh-water crabs, we
determined to make for the shore. But
now new difficulty arose. We did not
know where the shore was, and, with the
exception of the cliffs through which the
subterranean river made its entry, could
see nothing but wide expanse OF spark
ling blue water. Observing, however, thas
the long flights of aquatic birds kept lying
from our left, we concluded that they were
advancing from their feeding-grounds on
shore to pass the day in the lake, and &C
cordingly headed the boat toward the quar-
ter whence they came, and began to pad
die. Before long, however, stif1ish breeze
sprung up, blowing directly in the direc-
ton we wanted, SO we improvised SAIL
with blanket and the pole, which took
us along merrily This done, we proceed
ed to devour the remnants of our blltong,
washed down with the sweet lake water,
and then lit our pipes and awaited what
ever might turn up.
When we had been sailing for an hour,
Good, who was searching the horizon with
spy-glass, suddenly announced joyfully
that he saw land, and pointed out that,
from the change in the color of the water,
ne Thought we must be approaching the
mouth of a river. In another minute we
perceived great golden dome, not unlike
that of St Paul'S piercing the morning